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ABOUT THIS ALBUM

Album Notes

The spectral music on the "Stone Shore" EP was recorded live at Christ's Church Cathedral in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada when dreamSTATE (Scott M2 & Jamie Todd) and Heiki Sillaste performed for the New Harbours music series following the release of their first album together, "The North Shore".

Back home in his Toronto studio, Scott McGregor Moore edited out the trio's grooves and the "North Shore" pieces from their set and mixed in a fourth element - field recordings he had been collecting along the shoreline of Big Bay at Heiki's cottage.

Rocks gathered from Heiki's stoney beach were scraped, recorded, manipulated and merged with the music to help evoke impressions of the Laurentide Ice Sheet which carved out the Great Lakes and Georgian Bay, where Big Bay is located.

These final soundscapes connect the artists' spontaneous sound creations in a stone cathedral by Hamilton harbour, with their continuing relationships to the waters, the landscapes and the atmospherics of the Great Lakes region, their deepest inspiration.

Founded in 1995, dreamSTATE (Scott M2 & Jamie Todd) are a Canadian ambient music project known for their soundscape installations and live ambient and drone music performances. They also curate the long-running AMBiENT PiNG concert series in Toronto and are founders of the DRONE:KLUB community drone-improv group.

Heiki Sillaste is a veteran of the Toronto electronic music scene and was a founding member of groups such as Digital Poodle, Kinder Atom and Lazer Caps. Since 1987, Heiki Sillaste has released an impressive catalogue of well over 45 synthesizer-based records and made over 150 compilation appearances.

More than 4 years have passed since the phenomenal collaboration "The North Shore" between renowned Canadian dronescapers dreamSTATE and their fellow Toronto based electronic veteran Heiki Sillaste, who is also the driving force behind Paper+Sound label. dreamSTATE's Scott M2 and Jamie Todd as well as Heiki Sillaste are the core members behind The Ambient Ping, a Toronto based creative community of audio artists, performers, musicians and visual artists, who will celebrate this summer already their 18th Anniversary. Of course I always keep an eye and ear on their activities and I was eagerly awaiting the follow-up to "The North Shore". Actually, as far I remember, the next chapter was tentatively entitled "The South Shore", however, it ended up as "Stone Shore" CDr EP format packaged in a standard jewel case with 2-page front insert ("Stone Shore" is available also on cassette). Released at the end of April 2017, at the very first point, when revealing "Stone Shore" I was quite disappointed as the track list consisted of 3 pieces only with running time around 22 minutes. But after inserting the CDr into my player, I was a bit confused as the index showed 5 tracks with total run time over 43 minutes. It obviously reached its pinnacle when the track number 4 followed with one minute of silence. Fortunately, the 5th track was a real one and as later informed by Heiki, it was a kind of hidden gift for all those who buy a physical edition of "Stone Shore". Thus the EP album, which was recorded live at Christ's Church Cathedral, Hamilton, Canada on May 10th, 2013, is now extended to a rather satisfactory length. But nice trick, guys!

8-plus minutes long "Strange Harbour" is announced by a soothing shoreline field recordings, which are soon joined by subterranean choir-infused drone cascades, calmly buzzing, at times nearly didge-like groaning dissonances, introspectively engrossing blankets, invading cinematic vistas and glimpsing cyber-tech gossamers. The track glides consistently through stunningly awe-inspiring crepuscular seacost sceneries, masterfully exhibiting picturesque vast realms of Georgian Bay. "Laurentide" clocks to nearly 6 minutes and it straightly dives into enigmatically weeping panoramic expanses bringing back the memories of freezing rugged solitaries of "The North Shore". But this time it glides even further and immerses the listener into a kind of sonic timelapse exquisitely evoking the glacial period, when the Laurentide Ice Sheet covered most of Canada with a massive sheet of ice. Tenebrously undulating epic dronscapes are carefully bridged with ambiguously rumbling undercurrents. Breathtakingly sonorous! 7-minute "Stoney Beach" returns into gorgeously scenic quietudes guided by the stoney shoreline, where infinitely mesmerizing nocturnal symphonies persistently commingle with embracing tranquilities of drifting panoramic stratums, subtly crescendoing patterns, intangibly lyrical pillows and perpetually ascending rattling meridians. Soothingly rewarding journey! Then transmuting through the silence into the veiled closing, 21 minutes long opus named "Secret Shore", a composition driven by intensified drone helixes, intriguingly reinforced by a gamut of warmly panoptic glimmers, mindscaping disruptive vertexes, intricate hypogean gleams and cyber-biotic elixirs. As much engrossing as disturbing aural climax to close this strikingly venturous dronebalm, bravo, gentlemen!!!

Sure, I will always missing the longer story of "The North Shore" as well as its glass mastered format packaged in an attractive 4-panel digipak with additional signed art cards, however, "Stone Shore" is another powerful drone tour de force focusing on the magic of coastal sceneries of The Great Lakes and Georgian Bay, a truly ethereal environment serving the deepest inspiration for Scott M2, Jamie Todd and Heiki Sillaste. Explore "Stone Shore" now!!! And in case you are not familiar yet with "The North Shore", grab a copy of this one too!!! As mentioned by Heiki, two follow-up collaborative albums are in the works, so I will definitely stay tuned! And when focusing on the most recent solo releases, dreamSTATE has a new "DRoNE DAY" CDr out since May 22nd, 2017, on their own e-SPACE Editions. The album was recorded live on the first National Drone Day on May 10th, 2014 at Array Space in Toronto. Since then, Drone Day became a celebration of drone, experimental, and ambient music, and is celebrated annually in May. Regarding Heiki Sillaste's latest projects, he has compiled the latest "Quiet Drones 8" compilation, featuring 7 various projects from Canada, marking the 50th release for Paper+Sound label.